A former lobbyist and VP for the National Association of Manufacturer’s, Baroody’s nomination drew fierce criticism from consumer advocate and Democratic quarters, who wondered how well he would police an industry that had been paying him to promote his interests.

If you’re wondering how this came about, here’s a chronology of Baroody headlines…

@RokMartian: The thing of it is, its not so much the Nazi connection as it is the relevance of someone who most common people would hate due to the bad things they have done trying to take a position that is completely contradictory to the actions that made them hated.

So, saying it is like Michael Jackson running an anti-child-molestation group would be just as apt.

@Art Vandelay: Exactly what I was thinking. I can’t shake the feeling that Baroody’s nomination and (inevitable) withdraw is just setting us up for another bad candidate that just happens to be “less bad” than the previous.

Has everyone noticed that there seems to be a really odd, strange and highly-questionable series of weird incidents with NAM in recent years? What exactly is going on with NAM? Shady people, questionable judgements, people leaving, people getting fired–odd administration things. Time for an investigation of NAM, maybe?

Actually, a couple of days ago, Sen. Harry Reid’s office leaked that the recess appointment bar was closed and would not be reopening. Apparently, they’re going to run “quickie ‘pro-forma’ sessions every 10 days, so that Bush will be forced to submit any appointees for Senate confirmation. Pretty freakin’ brilliant, I’d say.

Just curious–do you all really think this guy, when appointed to a position where he takes an oath to uphold the duties of his office, would actually torpedo the department for which he works. I mean, I can already anticipate every response to this post, but seriously, it’s like in your collective minds no defense attorney could every becoming a prosecutor or anything similar. People have conflicting jobs in the course of their careers all the time and they do them both well. And as for the money–that was a deal worked out 17 months ago, and it’s quite common. I’m not saying Broody would necessarily been great, but to shoot down a guy even before his senate hearings just because of his previous job, give me a break–this isn’t the movies.

@nysports: Oath schmoath. Appointing a known advocate for big business, to run an organization that’s supposed to protect the vict… I mean customers of big business, elevates the concept of government corruption to a whole new level. Besides that, we’ve already seen this scenario play out at the FDA. Would you let a pedophile babysit your kids if he took an oath to uphold his daycare duties? It’s like that.

Hey, he’s the wimp who chickened out the day before his hearings. If he didn’t believe it himself, why should anyone else?

The kicker, of course, as Ben quoted elsewhere, is that without a 3rd commissioner, the CPSC is hamstrung and can’t form a quorum, can’t issue fines, or change rules. So it’s effectively neutralized enough, I guess.

Federal law says the CPSC cannot operate for more than 6mos without a quorum. It took Bush 9 mos just to announce he was nominating Baroody. How long will the next guy take? Sounds like a strategy being implemented to me.